erin is back next week and we'll be following all of the late breaking developments on the fiscal cliff negotiations which are coming down to the wire. it's a working weekend in washington. have a great weekend and a happy new year. "anderson cooper 360" starts right now. >>> john, thanks. we begin tonight with breaking news about your paycheck, your unemployment check, your defense job, the entire economy, you name it. all of it is at stake if the country goes over the fiscal cliff. it's a cliff that lawmakers built. they set the tuesday deadline, they knew it was coming for more than a year. but even now, they have done little to agree to a package before that time. keeping them honest, the people in this building have known what's coming on tuesday, yet they're only returning to this building to get back to work just now. senators came back yesterday. house members, well, they woet be back until sunday. this afternoon, house and senate leaders met with president obama at the white house. they talked for about an hour. afterwards, president obama said he was modestly optimistic. bypas